Oh no, Banding and ink droplets on SP300i!

[scarface]

Hey guys, I literally printed a order maybe 4 hours ago, everything was perfect and then i go to print these 2 decals and bam! problems occurred.

The machine was manually cleaned 2 days ago and it is basically a "new" machine since i got it middle of December i think it was. It has factory OEM inks and everything in the machine and i have not changed ANY settings.

Not in the photos but on the side where there was nothing printed there is ink droplets. The second photo shows it started off fine then started to get banding.

Vinyl is General Formulations Concept 203, Profile is the one that matches from GF, I also tried the 3651 profile with same results when before both worked perfect.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Mosh]

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN! You have to clean the printer or this will happen. We clean our machine every day (we run an average of 75 feet of material a day) We clean it even if we have only ran 2 feet. Keeping it clean is the best way to avoid drops. the bands I have no solution for but running the right profiles and on high res.

 

[luggnut]

these are pretty easy machines to make work.... it probably just needs cleaning cycle to get the ink flowing , possible nozzles not firing.. test print pattern?

most times ink is clogged or starved and a cleaning or 2 should get it back.

 

[scarface]

Thanks guys! Being new to the print game i had NO IDEA what to do since it was cleaned recently.

I cleaned it and reprinted perfectly.

Thank you!

 

[jfiscus]

droplets at our shop usually come from the environment - was your previous print job a banner? Those fine "hairs" around the edge of the banner & hairs picked up by static electricity as you load the media get stuck to the damp print head as it passes of the sheet & the ink spray collects on it until a droplet is formed and falls off, creating the drip spots you're having. Again, cleaning the heads & wipers regularly helps prevent this, but it happens to all of us from time to time.